Acceptance Address by Barry M. Goldwater at the 1964 Republican National Convention in the Cow Palace, Daly City, California on Thursday, July 16, 1964 .
"I accept your nomination with a deep sense of humility. I accept, too, the responsibility that goes with it, and I seek your continued help and your continued guidance. My fellow Republicans, our cause is too great for a man to feel worthy of it. Our task would be too great for any man, did he not have with him the hearts and the hands of this great Republican Party, and I promise you tonight that every fiber of my being is consecrated to our cause, that nothing shall be lacking from the struggle, that can be brought to it by enthusiasm, by devotion and plain hard work. In this world no person, no party, can guarantee anything, but what we can do, and we shall do, is to deserve victory, and victory will be ours.
This is a Party, this Republican Party, a Party for free men, not for blind followers, and not for conformists. Back in 1858, Abraham Lincoln said this was the Republican Party -- and I quote him, because he probably could have said it during the last week or so: "It was composed of strange, discordant and even hostile elements" in 1858. Yet all of these elements agreed on one paramount objective: To arrest the progress of slavery and place it in the course of ultimate extinction. Today, as then, but more urgently and more broadly than then, the task of preserving and enlarging freedom at home and of safeguarding it from the forces of tyranny abroad, is great enough to challenge all our resources and to refire all our strength. Anyone who joins us in all sincerity, we welcome. Those who do not care for our cause, we don't expect to enter our ranks in any case. And let our Republicanism, so focused and so dedicated, not be made fuzzy and futile by unthinking and stupid labels. I would remind you that extremism, in the defense of liberty, is no vice. And let me remind you also, that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
I repeat, I accept your nomination with humbleness, with pride, and you and I are going to fight for the goodness of our land. Thank you."
